Justice For Noura | Don't execute Noura for self defense against the man who raped her!

"On Monday morning, just as we set out for our daily walk, my mother told me the story of Noura Hussein :

At 16, Noura was forcibly married off by her father. She refused, and in protest left her family home on the outskirts of Khartoum to stay with her aunt in Sinnar, a city almost 250 kilometers away. Noura lived with her relative for three years before her father called to say that the wedding was cancelled, and that she should come home.

Upon her arrival, Noura found that she had been tricked, that the wedding to which she had never agreed was still happening, and shortly after was given away to her unchosen husband.

According to her testimony, Noura refused to consummate the marriage, resisting him for the first four days. On the fifth, she says her husband raped her, with the help of a number of his male relatives (cousins and some people said the husband's brothers aswell), pinned her down while he was raping her right before their eyes.The following day, when her husband attempted to rape her again, she stabbed him in self defence and it killed him. When she told her family, her father delivered her to the police, and then disowned her.

That was in 2017. On Sunday, April 29, 2018, Noura was found guilty in court of premeditated murder, the punishment for which is death by hanging.

My mother received this article about Noura on WhatsApp, a platform that has grown to be a main “news” source for Sudanese across the world. I say “news” because much of the information shared over WhatsApp should be taken with a grain of salt, as many of the topics shared take on an exaggerated quality. But the platform does prove useful, occasionally exposing us to issues that either don’t make it on international newsdesks (nobody wants to hear about anything from Sudan that isn’t war or terrorism), or provide a look into the corners of our lives that folks (read: government/society) prefer to stay hidden.

My reaction to Noura’s story should have been that of many of my compatriots, of healthy – and sometimes unhealthy – skepticism, to loosely quote @Osochil on Instagram. Except that I wasn’t blessed with the bliss of ignorance (or denial). Except that I know that Noura’s story isn’t new, that it isn’t even uncommon. Except that I personally know women who had been married off against their will, who suffered in silence at the hands of their husbands, whose families had all but abandoned them and/or who tacitly or actively supported their husbands’ (and their families’) abuse.

Because the truth that we hate to admit is that the only thing that makes Noura’s story extraordinary is that she killed him. Her circumstance is a daily occurrence that the openminded and “enlightened” of us might not approve of, but will put up with because “that’s just an unfortunate part of our culture”. We will put up with it because the enduring silence of the women who suffer this fate allows our feathers to remain unruffled, it keeps our delicate sensibilities unaffected, it allows us to stay complacent.

Noura’s story is extraordinary because she killed her abuser, and that is what she is being faulted for in the court of law and public opinion (and from which all of the following throughout this article are real quotes).

“She should have reasoned with him”, “she should have told her family”, “she should have gone to court, she should have found another way”. The last four days have been a flood of should-haves, each one more patronizing than the last, each one ignoring the facts of her case, of her circumstance, of her culture.

How could she have reasoned with a man who wasn’t reasonable enough to accept her adamant rejection of him?

How could she seek refuge in her family, the same people who put her in this position in the first place? The same people who, when she *did* seek refuge, abandoned her?

What other way was there for her to find? How does a 19 year old with no family support gain the access and tools needed to navigate her way through the legal system to get autonomy from her husband? And how long does that take? And how many are successful?

The last four days have exposed our ignorance, our callousness, our violent misogyny.

“She’s guilty, it’s his right, she can’t refuse him”, “He’s not a man for getting his cousins to help….. he should have just drugged her”, “Tf you talking about, [she’s] his wife he can f*ck her daily if he wants, Allah said that.” One news article read, “Bride Kills Husband on Their Honeymoon […] She stabbed him repeatedly after he tried to take his religious right [حقه الشرعي] from her by force.”

Our society does not recognize marital rape and uses hadith (narrations) and other religious texts to justify it.

Our society holds women accountable for the heinous actions of men, and then tells them to grin and bear it. “She didn’t choose to marry him, but her father chose for her, what can she do?” “Yes, he raped her, but she shouldn’t have killed him.” “Yes, he raped her, but she killed him in an inappropriate way.” (yes, that is the word-for-word quote) Our society does not recognize a woman’s right to her body, to choice, to life.

Our society does not want to come to terms with the heinous acts that it practices and values it holds. Our society thinks its ignorance is “fringe”, and hides behind the pristine image of “culture and tradition” that it has painstakingly curated. It digs its head in the sand and shows its ass to the world. “Our men don’t involve other men in rape, and not family. It’s not our culture. There must be more to the story.”

To preserve this image, it will tell us to put faith in a justice system that it bashes on a daily basis. Noura was painted by the prosecution as a woman who, unprovoked, “brutally” murdered her husband in cold blood. They denied the rape. They did not provide a counter-motive. Even without cause or motive, they never questioned her mental state or theorized on what drove her to commit such a crime – and the justice system did not ask them to. It was content to cast a quick and dirty guilty verdict.

Our country protects the perpetrators and demonizes the victims. It sentences a teenager to death, and gives a convicted rapist a presidential pardon (look it up)."

That’s when I read this blogpost that I decided to start this petition. I had to do something and not let this happen like it did for Asifa, and Zainab, two little girls that have been recently raped and killed in Pakistan. I am, too, a teenager and i could have faced the same thing as Noura if I was born in Sudan. I’m really emotional and Noura’s story touched me.. I can’t let her be executed, i can’t. Please, help me save her !

On the 10th of May (The Day of Decision) the family of the deceased husband decided if they wanted her alive or not, for literally using self defence, against a man who was neither religiously and neither legally her 'husband', she never agreed to that marriage, and he raped her with the help of his cousins and brothers, what a shame, that you have to bring your male relatives to pin down a woman who refused to get married to and you have the gut to rape her, and some people have the atrocity to defend the man. This shows how patriachy and misogyny keep on ruling upon women in a horrible manner, and how Culture is killing innocent people, Islam condems forced marriage aswell as rape, the man had no rights to do this, not one single right! I bet if the man was alive they'd still probably punish Noura.

This just show how women are treated so inferiorly, discriminately and with pure misogyny, and inequality and patriarchy, this just show how women are supposed to be only men's sex objects, and women are expected to be quiet baby dolls who never raise their voices, and stand up against which is wrong.

"Noura is a Hero and standing up to your oppressor is not a crime. Rape is." -- @ShahdBatal

Justice should be served, God is the Most Just, and indeed Justice shall be established, for everyone, every single people who've been oppressed.

Let's get this petition a loooot of signatures so that these can be printed, please share this petition, Noura mental's state is really serious, she was forced to get married, she was raped, her family disowned her, and reported her to the police, and now here she is, waiting for her death sentence, subhanaAllah, i urge you all my brothers and sisters in humanity, please share this petition, let's raise our voice against oppression, against injustice, against any form of injustice,whether is misogyny, whether it's about discrimination, racism, and any form of injustice that violates Human rights.

Noura may have less than a month to live as from now, please help share this petition, and let's raise our voice for Noura using the hashtag " #JusticeForNoura" to get more attention!

We want justice for Noura, against this injustice, and for all the rest of women living this nightmare, and we want them free.

Let's show how the voice of the public matters, let's all sign against the death penalty of Noura Hussein, and let's all sign for her Justice to be established!